Please be okay, please be okay,is the only thing I can think as I race from the village down to the construction site.
I can’t be too late.
He’s going to be fine.
He has to be.
My eyes are already stinging with unshed tears, and I can hardly breathe with the squeezing pressure around my chest.
More than one villager or Warden tells me to get to higher ground as we pass going in opposite directions. I should listen. I should save myself.
But I know Xandril.
I know his willingness to break himself for the sake of others. His willingness to make whatever sacrifice necessary.
Ican’tbe too late. It’s not a thought I’ll even consider.
My heart stops when I see a group of Wardens gathered on an elevated bank. They’re surrounding something that I can’t see, but I know. My heartknows.
“Xandril?” I cry, running up the bank, slipping in the mud, covered in it by the time I get to him, but I don’t care.
He’s on the ground, dazed, looking half-drowned, his beautiful iridescent skin silvered with burns. He moves to get up, and one of the Wardens pushes him back down. Xandril growls, swiping out with his claws.
“Need to buy them time,” he says, his voice verging on manic. “Need to swim.”
His eyes are wild as he fights off another Warden, determined to get back to the river that nearly killed him, lashing out the same way he did this night Brightstar was born.
“Xandril!” I call, pushing through the soldiers.
Confused murmurs crop up—no one knows how to react tobothof their royals making foolish choices. But it’s not foolish for me. Xandril might attack anyone else who comes close, but I know I’m safe. I always have been with him.
“Xandril, look at me,” I say, kneeling in the mud next to him. His hands are mangled and shaking, but he lets me take them in mine, bringing them to my chest where I hold them against my heart.
“Do you think you’re the only one willing to break for them?”
He stares at me, deep dark eyes, wide with shock. I keep his hands pressed against my heart, encouraged that he’s not fighting anymore.
“You’re enough,” I tell him, emotion making my voice strained. “Just as you are. You don’t have to suffer to prove your worth, and the reach’s wounds are not yours alone to cure.” I drop my chin, pulling his hand to my lips for a soft kiss. When my tears fall to his knuckles, they turn to steam.
His eyes have the faintest ember of that familiar warmth now.
“There has been so much sorrow already, Your Majesty. Don’t become another reason we mourn,” I plead.
If he’s truly determined, none of us will be able to stand in his way. Not even a dozen of these men could hold him back. If Xandril makes up his mind to do something, no one in the reach could stop him. Not even me.
So when he tugs me into his arms and wraps me in a hug, relief fills me to my bones.
He’s going to be okay.
“Ingrid,” Xandril says, his voice weak and breathy now. “I—I…”
“What is it?” I pull back, frowning, just in time to see the light in his eyes dim as he collapses back into the mud.
Chapter Thirty-One
Xandril
Pain.
